Australia's East Coast: Sydney to Brisbane by Byron Bay and the Lamington Rainforest

1. Jour 1 : Arrive in Sydney

   Sydney Airport to your hotel near Circular Quay

   • Environ 30 min de route
   • Welcome dinner
   • Nuit : Sydney
   Détail du jour 1

   Fly into Sydney Airport (SYD), where a driver meets you in arrivals for the half-hour drive to a central hotel within walking distance of Circular Quay. Sydney is on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and your guide begins the week with that story. If you land early, walk down to the water: the Opera House forecourt and the Royal Botanic Garden beside it are free to wander, and the green-and-yellow ferries crossing to and from the Quay are a show of their own. The airport pick-up covers flights landing by about 3 pm; if you land later, send us your flight and we arrange the transfer so you join the group at dinner. At the early-evening briefing your See Sight Tours guide walks the group through the week ahead: the road north, what to pack for the kayak and the rainforest, and how each day is paced. Then we sit down together to a welcome dinner at a restaurant near the harbour.

   Compris

   • Pick-up at Sydney Airport (SYD)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner

   Temps libre : Free until the early-evening briefing

2. Jour 2 : Sydney Harbour on foot and by ferry

   The Rocks, the Opera House and the Royal Botanic Garden, then the ferry to Manly

   • En traversier
   • Petit-déjeuner
   • Nuit : Sydney
   Détail du jour 2

   We set off on foot at 9 am, ahead of the cruise-ship crowds, through the city centre past Harry Seidler's round Australia Square tower and down into The Rocks, the oldest part of colonial Sydney, with its sandstone lanes and first close views of the Harbour Bridge. From Circular Quay we walk around the Opera House, listed by UNESCO in 2007, and on through the Royal Botanic Garden to Mrs Macquarie's Chair, where the bridge and the Opera House line up across the water. Late morning we board the public ferry at the Quay for the half-hour crossing to Manly, passing close to the harbour heads. Lunch in Manly is your choice. Afterwards your guide walks anyone who wants along the shore path to Shelly Beach, a sheltered cove in the Cabbage Tree Bay aquatic reserve where you can swim or snorkel among fish near the rocks. The afternoon and evening are free, and ferries back run all day.

   Compris

   • Guided morning walk: the city centre, The Rocks, Circular Quay, the Opera House and the Royal Botanic Garden to Mrs Macquarie's Chair
   • The ferry from Circular Quay to Manly and back
   • The shore walk to Shelly Beach

   Activités en option

   • A guided tour inside the Sydney Opera House (price shown at booking)

   Option plus facile : Stay in the city after the morning walk and take the ferry to Manly later at your own pace.

   Option plus active : Walk the Spit Bridge to Manly track, about 10 km of harbour bushland and beaches, with the guide's directions, and meet the group in Manly.

   Temps libre : Afternoon and evening free

   Activité : About 2 to 3 hours on foot in the morning on city pavements and garden paths.

   

3. Jour 3 : West Head, then the Hunter Valley

   Sydney to West Head in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, then north on the M1 to Pokolbin

   • Environ 3 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Hunter Valley
   Détail du jour 3

   We leave Sydney at 9 am and drive about an hour north to Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, on the land of the Guringai peoples. From West Head lookout the view runs across Pittwater to Barrenjoey Head and Lion Island at the mouth of the Hawkesbury River. A short bush walk nearby leads to Aboriginal rock engravings cut into flat sandstone, and your guide explains what is known of them. Then it is about two hours on the M1 motorway to Pokolbin, in the Hunter Valley, one of Australia's oldest wine regions, where vines were planted from the 1820s. We sit down to a late lunch at a winery restaurant among the vines, then a guided tasting at a cellar door, where the winemakers pour the region's two signatures, dry Semillon and medium-bodied Shiraz, and explain why the hot valley suits them. The evening is free at our hotel among the vineyards, with kangaroos often grazing at the edge of the vines around dusk.

   Compris

   • West Head lookout in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, with the park vehicle fee
   • Short walk to Aboriginal rock engravings with your guide
   • Sit-down lunch at a Hunter Valley winery
   • Guided wine tasting at a cellar door

   Option plus facile : Stay at the West Head lookout while the group walks to the engravings.

   Temps libre : Evening free in the Hunter Valley

   Activité : The engravings walk is short on a sandy bush track with some uneven rock. Non-drinkers are welcome at the tasting; ask for juice or sparkling water.

4. Jour 4 : Diamond Head and the Koala Hospital

   Pokolbin to Crowdy Bay National Park, Laurieton and Port Macquarie

   • Environ 4 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Port Macquarie
   Détail du jour 4

   We leave Pokolbin at 8:30 am and head north on the Pacific Highway, about three hours with a coffee stop, to Crowdy Bay National Park. At Diamond Head, named for the quartz crystals that glint in its cliffs, we walk out over the headland through heath and paperbark, with views down long empty beaches and, from June to November, a chance of whales offshore. Eastern grey kangaroos often graze around the campground. Lunch is a sit-down meal in Laurieton, on the Camden Haven River below the forested slopes of North Brother mountain. Then it is 40 minutes to Port Macquarie and the Koala Hospital, where volunteers treat koalas hurt by cars, dogs, disease and bushfire; on a guided visit you see patients in their yards and hear how they are returned to the wild. We end the day at Tacking Point Lighthouse, built in 1879 on the headland above Lighthouse Beach. The evening is free in Port Macquarie.

   Compris

   • Diamond Head headland walk in Crowdy Bay National Park
   • Sit-down lunch in Laurieton
   • Guided visit to the Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie
   • Tacking Point Lighthouse

   Option plus facile : Stay at the Diamond Head lookout and picnic area while the group walks the headland.

   Option plus active : Walk the full Diamond Head loop, about 4.8 km through forest and along the cliffs, and meet the group at the end.

   Temps libre : Evening free in Port Macquarie

   Activité : About an hour on foot at Diamond Head on a mix of sand, grass and forest track.

   

5. Jour 5 : Up the coast to Byron Bay

   Port Macquarie to Coffs Harbour and Yamba, then Byron Bay

   • Environ 4.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Byron Bay
   Détail du jour 5

   This is the longest drive of the trip, about four and a quarter hours over roughly 410 km, a little over our usual cap because there is no shorter way between the two towns and no useful flight. We split it into three stretches of about an hour and a quarter to an hour and three quarters each. The first ends at Coffs Harbour, where we walk the breakwall from the jetty up Muttonbird Island, a nature reserve sacred to the Gumbaynggirr people, where wedge-tailed shearwaters nest in burrows from about August to April and the summit looks back along the coast. The second runs through banana and sugar cane country to Yamba at the mouth of the Clarence River, for a sit-down lunch near the main beach. The last stretch brings us into Byron Bay, a surf town on the far north coast of New South Wales, by mid-afternoon, with time to settle in and walk to the beach. The evening is free.

   Compris

   • Muttonbird Island walk at Coffs Harbour with your guide
   • Sit-down lunch in Yamba

   Option plus facile : Walk the jetty and breakwall at Coffs Harbour and skip the short climb up Muttonbird Island.

   Temps libre : Late afternoon and evening free in Byron Bay

   Activité : The Muttonbird Island path is paved, about 1 km each way from the jetty with a short steady climb.

6. Jour 6 : Byron Bay by kayak and Cape Byron at dusk

   A morning on the water in the Cape Byron Marine Park, a free afternoon and the lighthouse walk

   • Petit-déjeuner
   • Nuit : Byron Bay
   Détail du jour 6

   At about 8:30 am, while the sea is usually calmest (the operator sets the exact start by the conditions), we go out on a guided sea kayak tour in the Cape Byron Marine Park with a licensed local operator. The double kayaks are stable and no experience is needed; the guides lead you along the bay, where bottlenose dolphins are often seen and, in the migration months, humpback whales pass further out. Back on land by late morning, the middle of the day is yours: walk the length of Main Beach, try a beginner's surf lesson at The Pass, browse the cafes of the town centre or rest at the hotel. In the late afternoon your guide leads the Cape Byron Walking Track, a 3.7 km loop through rainforest and over the headland to the lighthouse, first lit in 1901, at the most easterly point of the Australian mainland. We reach it as the light turns gold, then walk down into town for a free evening.

   Compris

   • Guided sea kayak tour in the Cape Byron Marine Park
   • The Cape Byron Walking Track to the lighthouse with your guide

   Activités en option

   • A beginner surf lesson at The Pass (price shown at booking)

   Option plus facile : Skip the kayak and walk the beach to The Pass with your guide; on the cape walk, follow only the flat beach section to Wategos and meet the group there.

   Option plus active : Walk up to the lighthouse at sunrise as well, before the kayak.

   Temps libre : Middle of the day and evening free

   Activité : About 2 to 3 hours of easy paddling in double kayaks with a life jacket. The cape loop has steady climbs and steps.

   

7. Jour 7 : Burleigh Heads and up into Lamington

   Byron Bay to Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast, Canungra and the Green Mountains in Lamington National Park

   • Environ 3 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Lamington National Park
   Détail du jour 7

   We leave Byron at 9 am and cross into Queensland at Tweed Heads; from October to early April the clocks go back an hour at the border. An hour from Byron we stop at Burleigh Head National Park, Jellurgal to the Yugambeh people, and walk the short path around the headland through pandanus and rock, with surfers below and the towers of Surfers Paradise lined up along the beach to the north. Then we turn inland to Canungra, a small town in the green valleys of the Scenic Rim, for a sit-down lunch. The last stretch is about an hour up the narrow, winding mountain road to the Green Mountains section of Lamington National Park, part of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area. In the afternoon your guide leads the Tree Top Walk, a chain of suspension bridges through the canopy, and the forest tracks nearby. At dusk red-necked pademelons come out to graze on the lawns, and dinner is together at the lodge.

   Compris

   • Burleigh Head National Park headland walk
   • Sit-down lunch in Canungra
   • The Tree Top Walk and rainforest tracks at Green Mountains with your guide
   • Dinner at the lodge

   Option plus facile : Rest at the lodge after the Tree Top Walk instead of the longer forest tracks.

   Temps libre : Late afternoon free at the lodge

   Activité : The mountain road is slow and twisty for about an hour; tell your guide if you get carsick and sit at the front. The suspension bridges sway a little underfoot.

   

8. Jour 8 : Rainforest morning, Brisbane afternoon

   Green Mountains to Brisbane, the CityHopper ferry to South Bank, then Brisbane Airport

   • Environ 2.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   Détail du jour 8

   Before breakfast, anyone who wants can join your guide on a short bird walk at first light, when crimson rosellas, king parrots and, with luck, a regent bowerbird or an Albert's lyrebird are about. At 8:30 am we walk the Python Rock track, about 3 km there and back through the forest to a lookout over the Albert River valley and the cliffs beyond. At about 10:30 am we drive down the mountain to Brisbane, about two hours, the land of the Turrbal and Yuggera peoples. Our farewell lunch is at Howard Smith Wharves, under the steel girders of the Story Bridge on the river. Afterwards we ride the free CityHopper ferry upriver past the city towers to South Bank for a short walk through the riverside parklands and past Streets Beach, the free public swimming lagoon. At about 3:30 pm the driver takes you to Brisbane Airport (BNE), or drops you at a central Brisbane hotel if you are staying on. A flight before about 6 pm is not possible on this day; book a later one or add a night in Brisbane.

   Compris

   • The Python Rock track with your guide
   • Farewell lunch at Howard Smith Wharves
   • The CityHopper ferry to South Bank and a walk through the parklands
   • Drop-off at Brisbane Airport (BNE) or a central Brisbane hotel

   Activités en option

   • A short bird walk with your guide at first light, before breakfast

   Option plus facile : Sit on the lodge terrace with a coffee and watch the birds instead of the Python Rock walk.

   Option plus active : Walk the longer Morans Falls track instead of Python Rock, with an earlier start (we confirm the length and timing at booking).

   Activité : A flight leaving Brisbane before about 6 pm is not possible; book a later one, or ask us to add a night in Brisbane.

   

Faune et météo : March to May and September to November bring mild days on the coast. Humpback whales pass Cape Byron and the north coast of New South Wales from about June to November, and winter days are clear and cool. December to February is hot and humid, with summer storms in the ranges and busy beach towns in the school holidays.

• Sydney2 nuits
• Hunter Valley1 nuit
• Port Macquarie1 nuit
• Byron Bay2 nuits
• Lamington National Park1 nuit